by Marie Ferrarella, author of Finding Happily-Ever-After (Silhouette Special Edition, available for pre-sale July 1)

The above words occurred to me (my head is a mass of swirling trivia) when I went browsing through Amazon as I do periodically when I run out of energy to do anything else.

As you might remember from your childhood fairy tales, “seven with one blow” got the bragging little tailor in trouble and pitted him up against a fire-breathing dragon (he got the princess in the end, so all was well). But what do those words have to do with me? Well, they lit up my heart because, according to Amazon, on June 21st, they released twenty-seven of my out-of-print books on Kindle, where those books, in virtual form, will go on to infinity (and beyond, to steal a phrase from a current, extremely popular movie franchise).

This is cause for dancing around and singing (which I do with only the dog to bear witness; she’s fairly closed-mouthed) for two reasons. One is, of course, that the more books out, the merrier and the second is that there is something humbling about immortality. Let’s face it, somewhere out in cyberspace, these reprints, along with space debris, will continue far longer than I will. It’s like being told your family line will go on forever.

I love each and every one of the books I have written. Writing is a labor of love for me. It’s also very much like a birthing process (where, unlike with my kids, I get to decide what color hair and eyes and what kind of a personality each of my characters will have). I regard each and every one of the books I have written as my children, fruit of my imagination as opposed to the other end.

The sad downside of writing series books has always been that their life expectancy is limited to around thirty days on the shelf and then, three to six months later, poof, they’ve disappeared from the warehouses and can only be found in second hand book stores, their little covers beat up, their pages dog-eared, bent and fading. Now, they’re lovely and fresh, just as they were when they sprang off the presses, full of promise and hope.

Yes, I am a touching person (in oh, so many ways…) and I like to touch the pages of a book when I read. I have to admit that I still prefer the real over the virtual (in books and in husbands). But there is something grand about knowing that you are carrying around Shakespeare’s entire collection of works (along with as many of your own books as are out there) in your purse and you are not building up to the mother of all hernias.

And, with more of my older books available in e-book format, I’d like to think that, just possibly, a reader who has discovered me for the first time might want to pick up a few more books and can have that option at their fingertips rather than leaving it up to fate and the availability of the closest used book store.

Isn’t technology grand?

Don’t miss Marie’s next release, Finding Happily-Ever-After, available for pre-sale from Silhouette Special Edition on July 1st!

Private investigator Jewel Parnell doesn’t believe in fairy-tale romance. What she does believe in are low-risk, short-term flings and ignoring her mother’s constant matchmaking attempts. But her newest clients—a solemn, sexy professor and his grieving little nephew—might just give Jewel the lesson in love she so badly needs!

Christopher Culhane hires Jewel to locate his deadbeat ex-brother-in-law, never intending to fall for her or build a family of his own. Yet drawn by her beauty, Christopher is soon determined to prove to Jewel that she can find happily ever after…with him. Even if he has to do it one kiss at a time…

by Linda Cardillo, author of Across the Table (Harlequin Special Releases, June 2010)

When I got fired from my first job out of business school, I was a thirty-something single mother with a toddler, a kitchen shelf full of well-thumbed cookbooks and several years’ experience hosting dinner parties for my ex-husband’s international clients.  Instead of looking for another 9-to-5 job, I decided to take the huge pile of lemons that had been dumped in my life and make some lemonade. No, unlike some other Harlequin authors who started their romance careers writing out of economic necessity, I wasn’t quite ready to write my first novel.  I started a catering business instead.

I peeled a bushel of apples till two in the morning to make tarts for 120 people.  I whipped 20 eggs into a frothy yellow confection for a Genoise cake with butter cream frosting.  I pounded and sautéd chicken breasts, chopped hundreds of cloves of garlic, wrapped bacon around scallops, stuffed cannelloni with spinach, mushrooms and ricotta, and assembled antipasto platters filled with prosciutto, Genoa salami, provolone and mozzarella cheeses, marinated mushrooms and artichoke hearts, Tuscan white bean salad, pickled eggplant and tuna with olive oil and capers.  I know, I get a little carried away when I start describing food…

As I created these culinary masterpieces, packed everything into my aging Volvo, carted it off to my customers scattered around the Boston metropolitan area and Cape Cod and improvised in their kitchens, I began to long for a fixed location where the customers came to me.  I dreamed of opening my own restaurant.  I peered wistfully through the windows of vacant shops in high-traffic locations, imagining them filled with bustling staff and satisfied customers as aromas redolent with garlic wafted across the dining room. I thought about finding a place with an apartment “above the store,” so I could keep home and work close at hand, leaping ahead to when my son would be old enough to bus tables.  He’d be inspired by the restaurant business, go to the Culinary Institute of America and take over as chef.

But late at night, after finishing the prep for a dinner party and chasing after that son who was still in diapers, I pulled off my rose-colored glasses and assessed how much work it would be.

I knew how challenging the catering business was. I had designed, printed and mailed hundreds of brochures and thrown dinner parties to promote my business with my social network.  When I finally had clients, I wasn’t just cooking.  I tracked down good prices with wholesalers, scrambled to replace wait staff when someone called in sick before a big event, and coped with nervous hostesses who suddenly had second thoughts about the color of the linens after tables were already set for a sit-down dinner for a hundred.

But my overhead was still low and I could pick and choose the events I took on, rather than try to keep a retail operation open and humming seven days a week. So I put aside the dream of opening a restaurant at that moment in my life.

I went on to other things—marriage to a wonderful man, an opportunity to live abroad in Germany, a career writing business books and, ultimately, my first contract with Harlequin.

I thought the restaurant fantasy was a thing of the past—a mere glimmer of regret for the path not chosen.  And then, a suggestion from my editor, Paula Eykelhof, triggered a return to that dream and a unique opportunity to realize it in an entirely unexpected way.  Paula had commented on the way I wrote about food in my previous books and thought I might be able to make it more of a focus in my next project.

It didn’t take me long to reach back into that moment in my life when running a restaurant was my passion.  I finally was able to immerse myself in that exhausting and exhilarating world by creating Paradiso, the restaurant in my latest book, Across the Table, that is the heart and soul of the Dante family and the setting for their story of forgiveness, loyalty and love.

Through the pages of Across the Table, I got to realize a dream deferred.  Do you have a fantasy that has been fulfilled through reading (or writing) a book?

For three generations of Dante women, food means love…

From her restaurant on Boston’s Salem Street, and from her own kitchen, Rose Dante has served countless meals and built a tightly knit community of customers, family and friends. Her daughter Toni tried to create her own life, outside that circle—only to return with her daughter when her marriage failed. Now that Vanessa’s nearly grown, Toni must face the bitterness of the past in order to taste the sweetness of the future.

But she can’t make such a journey alone. She needs the guidance of a mother, of her family. She needs Rose’s recipes for happiness, learned by trial and error over sixty years of marriage. Recipes that are sometimes difficult to follow, but like the perfect risotto al limone, are worth the effort.

by Emily Rodmell, Assistant Editor, Love Inspired, Love Inspired Suspense and Love Inspired Historical

If you picked up your favorite women’s magazine and saw an article about hunky Alaskan bachelors living unclaimed in a town with very few single women, would you drop everything to go try to hook one of them? That is the question that our heroines answered “yes” to in an exciting six-author continuity series starting next month in Love Inspired. As the continuity coordinator for Steeple Hill, I had the privilege of heading up this project and working with six fabulous authors to make the tiny town of Treasure Creek, Alaska, come to life in Alaskan Bride Rush.

Continuity series are series that are conceived by the editors and written by multiple authors. Each book has the complete romance of one hero and heroine, but it also has what we call “continuity threads”. These are plots that stretch all the way through from the first book to the last book. The authors are given an outline of the series that details those threads along with the basics for their hero and heroine. They then have to work together to flesh out their own stories and to make them all work together. It’s a great chance for readers to really get immersed in the lives of the characters. You meet many of the future heroes and heroines in books throughout the series. Check out Kathleen Scheibling’s post on another continuity series from American Romance called The Codys, The First Family of Rodeo if you love these type of series.

The story for Alaskan Bride Rush centers around a guided tour company. Treasure Creek, Alaska lost its most visible citizen when the company’s founder Ben James died in a rafting accident, and tourism dollars have slowed down. The town is in crisis, so Ben’s widow Amy decides to write to a New York travel magazine to see if they’ll feature the tour company to hopefully bring in new customers. But when the letter winds up on the desk of a woman’s magazine editor, she’s more interested in a story on the town’s hunky bachelors. (And I can’t say I blame her. As you can see from the covers, these guys are great catches.) That article brings women flocking to Treasure Creek looking for love with the rugged tour guides.

And with a town name like Treasure Creek, we couldn’t resist having a secret treasure map thrown into the mix. You’ll have to read the books to find out if the infusion of would-be brides is enough to save the town, or if it will it simply drive everyone crazy. Either way, it’s a great ride.

For this amazing series, we snagged some of Love Inspired’s top authors. The official release date for the first book is next month, but it’s available now at eHarlequin.com for presale.

Alaskan Bride Rush series:

July 2010: Klondike Hero by Jillian Hart

August 2010: Treasure Creek Dad by Terri Reed

September 2010: Doctor Right by Janet Tronstad

October 2010: Yukon Cowboy by Debra Clopton

November 2010: Thanksgiving Groom by Brenda Minton

December 2010: The Lawman’s Christmas Wish by Linda Goodnight

And as a special treat, in April-June of 2011 we’ll be returning to Treasure Creek in Love Inspired Historical for a prequel continuity written by authors Allie Pleiter, Dorothy Clark and Linda Ford. I hope you’ll check all of the books out and let us know what you think.

And since we’re on the topic of going the distance (literally) for love, I’d like to know: what’s the craziest thing you ever did for love?

by Leslie Wainger, Editor-at-Large

I’m always amazed whenever I meet someone who says, “I only read mysteries,” or “I would never read a romance” (when it turns out they’ve never tried one, so how would they know?) I admit, I’m not very likely to pick up a manual on motorcycle repair or a fancy French cookbook (OK, any cookbook that isn’t geared toward maximum use of the microwave), but when it comes to fiction, my tastes are pretty broad and I’ll at least try something from a genre that doesn’t immediately grab my interest if I’ve heard enough good things about it. Take these two books that are really exciting me this month, yet are total opposites in every way, other than that they’re both great. (OK, and also that I edited them both. Full disclosure, don’t you know?)

Little Town, Great Big Life, by Curtiss Ann Matlock, is a book I would pack up and move right into if I could. Valentine, Oklahoma, is one of those towns where everyone’s a character in the best possible way, time moves at the kind of pace that’s fast enough to keep things interesting but not so fast you have to run to keep up and still end up missing something important, and – most of all – the possibilities are endless. In this book a new life is literally just beginning, when Belinda Blaine finds herself unexpectedly pregnant and has to figure out how to tell her husband that the comfortable life he loves is about to change – and that there’s something he doesn’t know about the woman he married. On the other end of the spectrum, ninety-two-year-old Winston Valentine isn’t about to look back, not when there’s so much in life to look forward to – like the dedication of a new carousel that will bring the whole town together. And in between there’s an unforgettable boy named Willie Lee who, with his dog Munro, is at the very heart of what makes this little town such a special place.

And then there’s Sharon Sala’s Blown Away, the first of her “Storm Front” trilogy and as good as a shot of adrenalin for getting your heart pumping and your hand turning the pages as you race to see where the story goes next. A tornado changes the town of Bordelaise, Louisiana, forever – but perhaps no one faces consequences as potentially deadly as Cari North. A successful mystery author back in town to see family, she not only loses all her nearest and dearest in the storm, she spots her ex-fiance burying a body in the swamp and has to run for her life, because the man who once loved her now has her murder in mind. Forced to take on the identity of her lookalike cousin, Cari has to stand back as the town mourns her death, then rely on the kindness of an admittedly handsome stranger to help bring her ex to justice and clear the way for her own return to the land of the living.

See what I mean about opposites? To be honest, I’m betting that if you try them both, you’ll love them both. But even if only one sounds appealing to you, I feel very confident promising that you won’t be disappointed.

Happy reading!

Leslie Wainger

Editor-at-Large

Everyone has heard of the Big Bad Wolf.

Wolves have always fascinated me, and when I needed an unstoppable villain in my Iron Fey e-novella, Winter’s Passage, the Big Bad Wolf was the perfect fit.  Savage, unstoppable, and relentless, he tracks protagonists Ash and Meghan through the lands of the Winter Fey, never far behind, until the final confrontation at the very end.  But how do you stop a creature that is supposedly immortal?

In nursery rhymes, in fairy tales, in ancient myth and legend, there has not been a more consummate villain than the lone hunter with the burning eyes and eerie howl who stalks the woods, looking to devour you.  When the full moon hangs in the sky, his legend comes to life. He terrorized Red Riding Hood, destroyed the homes of the 3 Little Pigs, taught the boy who cried “Wolf” a hard lesson, and casts his shadow over every werewolf tale in history.

In more modern fantasy, the wolf has taken on a nobler role, playing the rugged, misunderstood hero, fierce and protective and intensely loyal to his pack.  But he still embodies all that we admire and fear about wolves: the wildness, the mystery, the savage nature lurking just below the surface.  He will always be a predator, aloof and unpredictable, and we will always fear him on some emotional level.

There is no denying that his stories have been everywhere since the dawn of time.  But what if all those stories and myths and fairy tales gave him power, made him stronger with every telling?  Made him immortal?

What if he was hunting you?

Winter’s Passage was a lot of fun to write, and I hope I captured the spirit of the Big Bad Wolf in all his savage, mysterious glory.  The e-novella bridges the gap between The Iron King and the second book of the Iron Fey series, The Iron Daughter (coming August 2010).  So if your blood is up and you’re feeling a little wild, I hope you’ll download Winter’s Passage and enjoy cheering for the bad guy as much as I did.

Thanks so much!

Julie Kagawa

Editor’s Note: Julie’s brand new bridge in the Iron Fey series, Winter’s Passage, is available for FREE now at the eHarlequin eBookstore until July 31st.

by Kathleen Scheibling, Senior Editor, Harlequin American Romance

I love family drama. No, I don’t mean when my crazy uncle announces he’s in love with a house plant at the Christmas dinner table. I’m talking about watching and reading about other’s people’s families, and finding out what makes them tick. For years I was obsessed with The Sopranos, in all their bizarre domesticity. And I love shows like Modern Family, which shows familial dysfunction at its finest. It’s way more fun to look through the window at other people’s problems than deal with my own!

There’s one show I grew up watching that still sticks with me. On Dallas, the Ewings taught me about family rivalry, forbidden love, how money drives people, and about the imposing figure of the patriarch. I loved that show. Now they were fun to watch! And I still can’t get that theme song out of my head…

For a long time I thought about doing a big family drama in American Romance. Our books are all about family, after all. And since we love our western stories, I knew the family should live in a place as untamed, majestic and dramatic as I imagined their story would be. And so, American Romance brings you The Codys: The First Family of Rodeo.

This series is full of drama, wild western settings, and most important, heartwarming romance. John Walker and Anne Cody have raised five children on The Cottonwood Ranch in Big Horn County, Wyoming. Their offspring have all been brought up with a love of the rodeo. And even though they may have other professions, each of them regularly competes in rodeos all over the American west. And amid the horses and the dust and the glory of their events, they find the loves of their lives. And believe me; it’s going to be fun to watch.

Six incredible authors have created the Codys – a family with as many ups and downs and crazy times as any you’ll ever see. In Walker: The Rodeo Legend, you’ll meet a war veteran who finds redemption through rodeo, and through the love of a good woman. In Dexter: Honorable Cowboy (July 2010) and Dusty: Wild Cowboy (August 2010), you will read about twin rivalry at its best, while the brothers fight over women and spar with the rest of the family. Mark: Secret Cowboy (September 2010) brings the whole Cody story to a head – and we’ll find out what secret almost tears the family apart. Elly: Cowgirl Bride (October 2010) shows how the Cody women can hold their own at the rodeo, and lasso the man that’s right for her. And in Jesse: Merry Christmas, Cowboy (November 2010), we wrap up this part of the Cody story with a dramatic one-two punch.

I love this miniseries, and I hope American Romance readers do too. Thanks to our wonderful authors – Rebecca Winters, Marin Thomas, Cathy McDavid, Pamela Britton, Trish Milburn and Lynnette Kent – and thanks to you, for letting the Codys in to your lives. Enjoy the drama…and enjoy the romance!

Note: visit the Cottonwood Ranch today and meet some of the Codys in Her Unexpected Cowboy, a FREE online read by Trish Milburn! Here’s a sneak peek:

After the tragic deaths of their parents, Madison Gray had to become a mother to her fourteen-year-old brother, Jason. But the boy’s grief has led him down the wrong path, and Madison will do anything to steer him right. So she takes her friend, Elly Cody, up on her offer to visit her family in Wyoming, hoping a dose of ranch life will do them both good. The last thing she needs is the kind of complication that comes in the sexy form of Elly’s cousin, Callum!

Editor’s Note: From May 24-28 we are featuring posts by the editor and authors of the Harlequin NASCAR series. Are you a fan? New to the series? Leave a comment and be entered to win a FREE copy! See below for details.

by Abby Gaines, author of “Chasing the Dream” in The Memory of a Kiss (Harlequin NASCAR, June 2010)

My first love—of the fast, four-wheeled kind at least—was open-wheel racing. Dirt track stuff. Nitty-gritty…mostly gritty.

I was editor of a speedway magazine called The Dirt, and at my local racetrack I became known as “the Dirt girl.” I was so grateful anyone still considered me a girl, I didn’t worry about the dirt part…

Open-wheel racing “midget race car”

I loved that job, but I never thought my interest in racing would link to my romance writing until…deep breath… NASCAR.

I’d seen NASCAR on TV, along with other motor sports, but until I heard that Harlequin planned to publish stories set in that world, I hadn’t paid much attention to what those guys were doing out on the pavement for hours at a stretch. (The races I usually watched lasted all of four minutes!)

But if I wanted to write about NASCAR, I needed to watch it. There would be big differences, I figured, from open-wheel racing, and not just the cars.

So I started watching, and got hooked right away, just like millions of other people.

But, guess what? It turns out the major difference between NASCAR and the open-wheel stuff I’d cut my teeth on is…the cars. They look different and go much faster. Okay, yeah, the tracks are bigger, too, and way more people watch the races. But there were more similarities than differences.

Such as, the driver and the racing mindset. Turns out, whether you’re hurtling around a dirt track in a midget, or eating up pavement in a stock car, wanting to win is the just the starting point. There’s persistence, focus, physical fitness, the ability to overcome setbacks…Hmm, no wonder NASCAR drivers make great romance heroes! (They make WAY better money than dirt track drivers, too, which always helps.)

Next, the families. One thing I love in open-wheel is the multi-generational involvement. Grandfathers, fathers, sons—a legacy passed through generations, but also bringing the generations together in their passion for motor racing. Turns out it’s the same in NASCAR, even though there’s huge corporate participation in the sport. There are “NASCAR families” in the administration, in the teams and, of course, among the fans. I’m a big fan of anything that brings families together!

Then there are the teams. I learned early in my race reporting career that drivers seldom say “I.” It’s always “we,” and they mean it. A driver, in open-wheel or NASCAR, knows he’s nothing without the guys who bust their guts, week in and week out, to put together the perfect car for the track conditions. Those guys’ jobs are a blend of extreme skill and extreme intuition, not to mention speed and physical fitness. Hmm, no wonder NASCAR team members also make great romance heroes!

I’m really looking forward to reading the new Harlequin NASCAR series. Yummy heroes, strong families, intense competition. What do you love about racing?

 Since we’re featuring blog posts all week from the Harlequin NASCAR series, we are going to randomly draw five commenter’s names from the week’s posts to win the latest Harlequin NASCAR release, The Memory of a Kiss, by Wendy Etherington, Abby Gaines and Liz Allison! Just leave a comment on any of the posts published this week and you’ll be entered in the draw. Unfortunately, the contest is only open to residents of the U.S. and Canada. Contest closes at 11:59 pm EST on Friday, May 28th. Click here for full contest rules.

Editor’s Note: From May 24-28 we are featuring posts by the editor and authors of the Harlequin NASCAR series. Are you a fan? New to the series? Leave a comment and be entered to win a FREE copy! See below for details.

by Stacy Boyd, editor for the Harlequin NASCAR series

1.) Heroes are everywhere.

Growing up in Georgia, a lot of my friends made a habit of watching racing and the guys they most gushed over were the drivers. But in NASCAR romances, there are sexy dudes everywhere! On the track, in the pit stall, in the garage, owning the teams, sponsoring the teams…For NASCAR heroines, love happens when they find the perfect man for them, no matter his profession. I say this is true in life, too. And, yes, I am a hopeless romantic.

2.)  Every person’s role is essential.

When I first started working on NASCAR romances, I was pretty sure the sport was about driving in circles very fast. Not so! Strategy and teamwork are the backbone of racing, and everyone—mechanics, technicians, tire changers—plays a vital role in winning. Half a second at a pit stop can change everything. Isn’t that sort of like life? Everyone plays an important role, even if we can’t always see it right away. One after-school encounter at the Del Taco can change everything, i.e., that was all it took for me to fall for my husband.

3.) It’s all about love.

NASCAR romances are tales of families—blood relatives, working relatives, team players, fans who make the track a tradition. There are parties and festivities, rivalries and drama. All of it centers on love—of a sport, of family, of a boy and a girl.

Starting this June, you can discover more NASCAR life lessons by checking out our brand new storyline. We’ve changed the format—two novellas in each book—and we’ve got brand new voices in the line-up—YA author Mandy Hubbard and reader favorite Pamela Britton to name two.

Have you read NASCAR? Or visited a race? Let us know what stock cars—or their drivers—have taught you!

 Since we’re featuring blog posts all week from the Harlequin NASCAR series, we are going to randomly draw five commenter’s names from the week’s posts to win the latest Harlequin NASCAR release, The Memory of a Kiss, by Wendy Etherington, Abby Gaines and Liz Allison! Just leave a comment on any of the posts published this week and you’ll be entered in the draw. Unfortunately, the contest is only open to residents of the U.S. and Canada. Contest closes at 11:59 pm EST on Friday, May 28th. Click here for full contest rules.

by Jayne Hoogenberk, eHarlequin Community Manager

I promised I’d be back this week with more suggested reads for the month of May and here I am!   I’ve been combing our editor recommendations and polling our Community members, and here’s part TWO of my must-read list of books that we’re raving about in our blogs and forums.  You might be surprised to note that more than one of these stories were inspired by real life events!

TAKE SIX AUTHORS, EIGHT STORIES, and STIR GENTLY…
From glittering ballrooms to a Cornish smuggler’s cove; from the wilds of Scotland to a Romany camp—join with the highest and lowest in society as they find love in this thrilling new eight-book Harlequin Historical miniseries. Though the “official” series title is Regency Silk and Scandal, Regency co-authors of this new continuity love fellow “continuista” Louise Allen’s slightly longer description of the project: “The Scandals of the Murdered Baron’s Mystery Gypsy Lovechild’s Forbidden Revenge Quest Involving Virgins and at Least One Earl.” This Saga in Eight Books sounds like the PERFECT antidote to a boring day at the office, no?

Want more details on the Regency Silk and Scandal miniseries?  Read the author’s blog HERE and check out what editor Joanne Grant had to say right here on the Harlequin Blog.

How about a sexy summer anthology featuring two separate stories for twice the delectable scandal?

From June through August 2010, Silhouette Desire is launching a new miniseries called A Summer for Scandal—6 romance-packed stories in 3 volumes and the good news is that the first volume is available NOW on eHarlequin. This month two stellar authors—USA Today bestseller Katherine Garbera and Yvonne Lindsay—contribute sassy stories to our Secrets, Lies…and Seduction anthology, the first in the miniseries. In July, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Brenda Jackson teams up with Olivia Gates for the second installment: In Too Deep.  And topselling authors Catherine Mann and Emily McKay end the miniseries with Winning It All in August. These romances are the perfect summer getaway—powerful, passionate and provocative!  But don’t take MY word for it…read an excerpt HERE

And fan-favorite author Merline Lovelace is back with Risky Engagement. Not only is this part of her popular Code Name: Danger miniseries, but also this book is part of Silhouette Romantic Suspense’s “Military of the Month” promotion within the series AND was inspired by a true life story.  Merline says, “Have you ever planned the perfect vacation, only to have one disaster after another occur? That’s what happened when we jaunted down to Cabo San Lucas with our best pals, Neta and Dave. But even disasters can turn into fun with the right attitude—and they make terrific fodder for books!”   If you’re in the know, you KNOW that Merline always writes a juicy, suspenseful and sexy story and trust me you won’t be disappointed!

Now it also occurs to me that you might be in the mood for a Big Summer Book and lucky for you I have a number of single title suggestions to suit whatever mood you’re in.

Coming in June, we have a gritty debut from author Pamela Callow with Damaged featuring heroine Kate Lange, a struggling lawyer with a twisted family past, whose run-of-the-mill custody case suddenly turns into a murder investigation, with Kate as the murder’s next target. Pam says she was inspired to write Damaged by a criminal case in the United States and says, “drawing on my professional career at blue-chip firms, I wrote Damaged, the first of four planned books in the Kate Lange series. Kate is my everywoman superwoman. The next book in the series, Indefensible, will come out in January 2011. The third, Tattooed, is planned for the Summer of 2011, and the fourth in June 2012.”  You can check out the book trailer for Damaged here or on our Harlequin Books YouTube channel and read the first FIVE chapters of this page-turner here!

Author Diane Chamberlain has been hailed as “the southern Jodi Picoult” and is best known for her emotional relationship novels including the international bestseller, The Secret Life of Cee Cee Wilkes. Her latest story also available in June, The Lies We Told, tests the bond between sisters when disaster and love for the same man comes between them.  Diane is very proud of the book trailer for The Lies We Told, and you can view it by clicking on this link.  Diane says, “In my opinion, it gives the feeling of the book and the central themes (our family stories are not always what they seem and the powerful relationship between sisters) without actually trying to tell the viewer the story.”

A true story of selfless love inspired Debbie Macomber to write Hannah’s List. In this heartwarming story, a young widower named Michael receives a letter from his wife (speaking of remarkable women!) on the first anniversary of her death. In her letter, Hannah urges Michael not to bury himself in his grief but to remarry—and she includes a list of women she’d like him to consider as a second wife. This sweet story is a must-read for fans of uplifting fiction and Debbie’s wonderful storytelling.  To celebrate publication of this new Blossom Street novel, you can enter the Hannah’s List contest for a chance to win $10,000 by telling Debbie “What you would do if you had a ’second chance’ at something special in your life? You can enter the contest at the Hannah’s List website and view the book trailer for Hannah’s List here.

Well that about wraps things up for this month, did I miss something?  What are YOU reading and loving this month?  And were you paying attention?  Can you tell me which of my recommended books were inspired by true life stories?  I have a treat for you if you can correctly identify them in the comments section below.  I’ll be drawing at random from your comments for a chance to win a copy of Debbie Macomber’s Cedar Cove cookbook! Submit your comments by 11:59pm EST Monday, May 31st. Only open to residents of the U.S. and Canada. For full contest details, click here.

Jayne

Community Manager
eHarlequin.com

by Marsha Zinberg, Executive Editor, Feature and Custom Publishing

We’re always trying to put things in neat little boxes, aren’t we?  It’s how we organize our lives, or maybe even how we try to make sense of the world.  So when it comes to books that give us pleasure, we’ll often categorize stories as certain kinds of “reads”.  It’s “a road trip” story, or a “fish out of water” story, a “reunion” story, or “Cinderella” story.

Here at Harlequin, we’ve been trying to make the reader’s preferences for our broader categories easy to spot by the color coding we incorporate into the covers in particular niches within the romance genre:  purple for romantic suspense, red for more sensual stories, etc.

But nowadays, authors are considered “brands” in and of themselves, and their names alone will signal a certain type of story to loyal readers.

How to give our readers more of the very thing they know they love and make it easier for them to find what they like on our racks?  The answer to us was our new Showcase Program, which will highlight favorite authors AND their popular stories with the opportunity for reissued bestselling books  and authors in a 2-in-1 format, at a great price!

As Executive Editor of Feature and Custom Publishing, I’m so thrilled to have this opportunity to shine a light on some wonderful stories that may have been missed the first time around, and bring them together thematically in 2-in-1 volumes! Showcase is launching this month, with two volumes per month, each containing two complete books by bestselling authors.  And at $6.99/7.99, it’s a terrific value.

From now until December, we will feature the Passion category, which means readers will be treated to stories by favorite Presents, Desire and Blaze authors.  Some volumes will contain two books by one author, and others will feature two different authors from the same series.  If it’s western stories you love, look for Vicki Lewis Thompson’s and Kathie DeNosky’s linked books.  Alpha males, handsome Mediterranean heroes, arranged marriages?  Lucy Monroe and Julia James have it covered. Hot, hot, hot?  Leslie Kelly, Tori Carrington, Rhonda Nelson and Joanne Rock turn up the temperature. Pregnant brides, winter brides, wrong brides? Look for Sharon Kendrick, Penny Jordan and Merline Lovelace.  And of course, who doesn’t love Christmas stories?  Maureen Child and Lynne Graham will be providing those for us.  And there’s more to come…

But aside from a great author line-up, we’re really excited about the packaging of this new program.  For some time, we have been watching with delight the success of a cover treatment successfully executed by Harlequin France, and it seemed to our Showcase team that this new program was the perfect one on which to try such an approach in North America.  It is a more photographic treatment than some of our series looks, yielding a fresh, big-book, contemporary feel. By reducing the size of branding, we’ve allowed the imagery, author name, and title to stand out more, and hopefully be more readable at first glance on the rack. We feel these new covers are quite striking, and hope you do too!

Do let us know what you think of this new program , and if there are “categories” of reads that are your favorites, I’d love to hear about them!

I’ll be a guest on the Harlequin Blaze Authors blog on May 19^th, so check out that blog as well!  Meanwhile, leave a comment on this post this week and we’ll pick three lucky winners and send them a copy of the first two books in the Showcase series: Two in the Saddle & Boone’s Bounty by Vicki Lewis Thompson and The Sicilian’s Marriage Arrangement & The Greek’s Virgin Bride by Julia James and Lucy Monroe. Contest is only open to residents of the U.S. and Canada. Leave a comment on this post by May 21 11:59 pm EST and we’ll announce a winner on Monday morning. Full contest details are here. Good luck!

Marsha Zinberg

Executive Editor, Feature and Custom Publishing